shooting on the fly

<p>A few nights ago, while driving south on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis and crossing the Mississippi River, I opened the front passenger window, held up my K-5/DA 21mm Lmt. combo (which was preset for hyperfocal at F/8, with the body in Av mode, ISO 100, and the shutter clicking at 1/60 second), and hoping I was aiming in the direction I wanted I snapped the shutter a bunch of times as I crossed the river bridge. Later on, I looked at the results, and frankly the shots were darker than I hoped due to the brightness of the sky and the landscape being in nearly full shadow. But I played with a couple of the shots in ACR (images were RAW capture) and brought them back to life, including minor cropping for vertical alignment. Yes, the results would have been a lot better if I was not moving at 60mph and "shooting blind", and higher ISO/faster shutter would have increased sharpness, but I like what I see here (I love the scene, I try not to gawk whenever I go by it), and I think the editing to save the image gives a bit of a painting look vs. a definite photograph look.</p>

<p>The foreground feature in the river is the lower lock and dam of St. Anthony Falls, with the Xcel Energy power plant on the right side, and then the freeway bridge guardrail whizzing by at the bottom/front of the frame. The vertical blue streak at left center is the vertical scrolling LED sign on top the Guthrie Theater.</p>

<p>If you have similar shots to share, please do so.</p>

<p><img src="http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p26/stevet_010/_IGP1565edit.jpg" alt="" width="799" height="493" /></p>

<p>If you live close by: The front rail ruins the shot for me. Next time please park the truck, walk up the bridge and reshoot this wonderful scene, if it still happens to be there.</p>

<p>If you don't live close and was only passing through: It is a wonderful scene and the flying rail and clouds echo our ephemeral existence, in that we chase around whatever it is that we chase around, but do not stop to gaze at it when it is placed in front of us.</p>

<p>It can be cropped to eliminate the rails. I don't actually mind the rails however.<br>

It has a nice atmosphere.</p><div></div>

<p>I chose to leave the guardrail in the scene because for me it shows movement and provides a detail in the up-close foreground, emphasizing the depth of the view. I did try for the crop, similar to JDM's version (croppier, that's good!), but that left a bit too much missing, including much of the river.</p>

<p>That, and I was on an interstate freeway and am not permitted to stop for anything other than emergencies. With my luck, simply pulling onto the shoulder to stop and frame a proper photo would result in a law enforcement officer pulling up right behind me, ticket book in hand. This is a brand new bridge (replacing the one that collapsed during rush hour traffic 4 years ago, if anyone remembers that national news story), and for the hundreds of millions spent on it's construction, I sure wish they could have spent a few dollars more to provide an 8-foot wide sidewalk on each side of the bridge for non-motorized traffic. But that's off-topic...</p>

<p>Thanks for you thoughts!</p>

<p>That's a neat shot, especially considering the conditions you got it under. I have a few of those somewhere but of mountain scenes - if I find them I'll share.<br>

The lack of pedestrian accommodation sounds like a real drag. How does one cross on foot or by bike? Is there an alternate route without a huge detour? Seems like a pretty huge oversight.</p>

<p>Nice! Somehow (I've never been there) I recognized it as Minneapolis immediately--I'm really scratching my head over that.</p>

<p>There's an interesting photographer here on p.net, Gordon B., who's made <a href="../photodb/folder?folder_id=749110">drive-by shooting</a> something of a specialty, BTW. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>Indraneel, I especially appreciate your comments. You captured my thoughts exactly.</p>

<p>I love shots like these, Steve. As Indraneel's second paragraph states so well, when we cannot get the perfect shot it is often the shot we do get that is the most real. It reminds us of a point in time when we get what we can, how we can. In your case, the shot is fantastic. I'd love to see a series from you using this style of shooting on the fly. It's cool to me when I think of the great scenes we drive past everyday, and this is usually how we see them in real life- just fleeting glimpses. If only we had time and opportunity to stop for a while and enjoy them.</p>

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<p>Is this croppier or what?</p>

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<p>hmm... I feel like I'm looking out of a window that's too high up for me.</p>

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<p>law enforcement officer pulling up right behind me, ticket book in hand</p>

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<p>um.. can't argue with that one :) but maybe he'd have liked a print (or is that an extra charge)?</p>

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<p>Indraneel, I especially appreciate your comments.</p>

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<p>Thank you John.</p>

 

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<p>That's a neat shot, especially considering the conditions you got it under. I have a few of those somewhere but of mountain scenes - if I find them I'll share.<br /> The lack of pedestrian accommodation sounds like a real drag. How does one cross on foot or by bike? Is there an alternate route without a huge detour? Seems like a pretty huge oversight.</p>

 

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<p>I can say this, most places are not as bike friendly as colorado. In New York we have tons of non bike friendly roads and bridges, and yes, you need to detour. My friend and I once almost got arrested by a very pissed off State Park policeman. We rode the causeway to Robert Moses. Unlike Jones Beach, Robert Moses has no bike access, but we were 16 and didn't yet have cars, and riding to beaches was our fun, which we did 5 days per week. So we decided to just ride to Robert Moses. Most of the 60 mile round trip was just like riding anywhere else on Long Island, but the last few miles on the Causeway was nerve racking for even us. No shoulder, no legal right to be there (thus no legal right to take a lane), and cars blowing by at 65mph or more.</p>

<p>The cop that finally caught us told us point blank. You ride out of this park and I am confiscating the bikes. Find another way home. So we waited around all day, rested up (uh, swam, body surfed and played pickup volleyball) till it got dark, and then sprinted as hard as we could the 5 miles out of park police jurisdiction (which technically is statewide, but we figured he wasn't leaving the park to pursue two teenage cyclist).</p>

<p>You can say I fought the law and won!</p>

<p>Anyway, definitely no bikes on parkways or interstates. Also, no bikes on sidewalks (despite the frequent call by idiot drivers to "get on the sidewalk where you belong"). In NYC they have been aggressively ticketing people for even dismounting on the sidewalk in front of their residence. You need to dismount in the street! In fairness, riding on the sidewalk is ridiculously dangerous in a place like NYC, but I think the enforcement has gone too far. You also need to come to a complete stop at traffic lights/signs. Again, they are aggressively enforcing this. Unfortunately, I totally disagree with this, and Idaho's rolling stop for bikes makes perfect sense. A bike is defenseless when stopped, and you can't just hit the gas to gain momentum. Try moving quickly with your bike when not rolling...guess what, you are dead!</p>

<p>As far as the photo. I've taken quite a few grab shots like this, and I prefer the guard rail in Steve's shot. But Steve knows I like motion in the shots. Stop action is great for sports work that is going to press, for everything else, motion is my preference. The scene, btw, is pretty. Nice looking city!</p>

<p>Yeah, I like Idaho's rolling stop law too. We should all have that one! My surprise was that this was a NEW bridge. I know a lot of places, especially older road systems don't accommodate bikes and/or pedestrians, but I'm a little surprised new construction doesn't have it either. I'll blame it on Bachmann. ;)</p>

<p>Great shot just the way it is, thanks for sharing it.</p>

<p>@Justin - Given the issues that NYC has with bikers just blowing through red lights, I can understand them wanting to strictly enforce full stops. (I'll be honest, I roll through most stop signs and red lights.)<br>

@Matt - The bridge is built for an Interstate-wont ever be pedestrian or bike friendly. Here in rural KY there are miles of road that goes along the river just begging to be ridden, but no shoulder and I've heard plenty of storys of bikers being ridden off the road.</p>

<p>Steve, fun subject, thanks for bringing it up. I seem to do a fair amount of drive-by or from-the-hip shooting, and really like the DA21 for that. Here's one from a trip to Seattle-Tacoma last year. I held my K-7/DA21 out the passenger window of my friend's car as we came up behind this low-rider (I think it's an old Chevy Impala) at a stop sign. (Funny thing - sort of - the friend who was driving and I both grew up in Northeast Los Angeles a long time ago, and back then "drive-by shooting" had a whole different meaning, but the cars looked just like the one in this picture.</p>

<p><img src="http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/Travel/Seattle-June-13-19-2010/Tacoma-WA-06181910/IMGP2116/907910023_fqewf-L.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="532" /></p>

<p>This one was taken while moving as well. Whenever someone talks about camera ergonomics, I think about how easy it is to control a Pentax dSLR in Aperture priority with one hand (aperture selection in the front, ISO on the rear dial) while driving with the other. This one is part of a series, but I put the camera down after this one as my wife was suggesting (strongly) that I should pay more attention to that large boulder that leaves only a small amount of clearance on the left to get though.</p>

<p><img src="http://frankbaiamonte.smugmug.com/So-Cal-Explorations-Day/Anza-Borrego-Sandstone-110810/FB016136/1082254062_KxAAM-L.jpg" alt="" /> </p>

<p>For those that have seen my blog or my smugmug site, the image at the top, of a flock of Canada Geese, was also a drive-by or sorts. I was coasting the truck to a stop on a gravel road and shooting out the driver's window at the same time, knowing that by the time I came to a complete stop the geese would be gone.</p>

<p>I do like the shot of Minneapolis, by the way. And I'm fine with the railing in the context of the shot. I would not try to crop it out.</p>

 

<p>Thanks Folks!</p>

<p>Yeah, I guess offering a police officer a copy of the photo your are "illegally" taking to avoid a citation would be considered a bribe. </p>

<p>For non-motorized moving about, there is a "city street" bridge that runs parallel to this one, about one block's distance behind the camera. Okay... And in the photo, that multi-arched bridge (the historic Stone Arch Bridge) was formerly a railroad bridge that was built over a century ago, and is now used only for non-motorized traffic, and sits about 1/3 mile away from my shooting location. (This was the location of my recent BW street photos.) This bridge gets tons of foot and bicycle traffic every day of the year, both commuting and leisure.</p>

<p>But still, in the building of this new bridge that replaced the tragically collapsed former bridge, lots of people stood up and screamed holy hell about not incorporating into the bridge non-motorized traffic movement, that and not incorporating the future of light-rail commuter trains into its design, a mode of transport that is coming back to life after being banished by the stinky diesel bus in the 1950's. But this bridge was designed to be a memorial, a landmark, a crown jewel, of the city of Minneapolis, a city that is national renowned and awarded as the bike-friendliest city in the country, but the city had little say in this state/federal project. And there are other interstate river crossings in the area that were designed and built for bicycle/pedestrian traffic, so it's strange (other than the added cost) that it wasn't incorporated here, too. But this new bridge has 5 driving lanes in each direction! So-be-it, I guess.</p>

<p>Ok, so I'm late to the party - story of my life!<br />But, I do like the guardrail showing. First, too much of the river is lost. Second, because w/ the guardrail cropped out, the sky becomes over powering and takes focus off the rest of the pic to me.<br /><br />I really really like the placement the sun got. Actually pretty stunning. </p>

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<p>that and not incorporating the future of light-rail commuter trains into its design, a mode of transport that is coming back to life after being banished by the stinky diesel bus in the 1950's.</p>

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<p>Rail gets a lot of thumbs up because even people who would never ride a bus might ride a light rail. However, cost efficiency of light rail is as bad as any limited access mass transit system.</p>

<p>Buses are much more efficient in both cost and coverage. Heck, despite buses 10-15 year lifespan, most municipalities can't afford to replace them when the time comes.(just read a report on that).</p>

<p>Most buses these days are running on natural gas or even electric, further negating light rails environmental benefits. Remember, electric that the rail runs on probably comes from coal. So there is no such thing as a free lunch (or clean coal)!</p>

<p>FWIW, I think light rail is sexy, just like most people, but realistically it's just not a good way to spend what today is very limited infrastructure money. Not when I just read a report that the nations 5 biggest metro transit systems are $5T (that's trillion) behind in maintenance. And even NYC's MTA struggles year to year to cover it's own expenses without siphoning money from the toll roads and bridges of NY, or worse, just flat out asking the state to bail it out.</p>

<p>The light rail/commuter train system being rebuilt around here is more being planned and used to haul people from the outer rings to the inner population/commerce centers, sort of like Chicago, a park-and-ride system into the inner city. And one line is being built now for the 9 miles between the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis (which has had horrible freeway congestion for over 30 years), running through the Univ. of MN Twin Cities campus, a campus of several tens of thousands of students and thousands of staff. We're too small for a train system like Chicago or New York, serving neighborhoods like buses serve them. We've got pretty bad sprawl here for a metro area of somewhere over 2.5 million folks. People were (still are) driving in on an antiquated highway/freeway system that is bottlenecked to the point where rush hours are from 5-9am, and 2-7pm and later. We have evening rush hour congestion on weekends! It's pretty routine in this area for people to live on one end of the metro area and commute to the other end, with drives of 30-60 minutes (at good driving speeds) or longer being normal. Yeah, it's not LA or NY or that type of big town, but still an imperfect and wasteful system no matter how we go about it. (Teleportation is our answer, but Mr. Scott* hasn't been born yet.) So few people car pool that our "express lanes" also offer electronic pay toll service for single occupant vehicles, and those are the cars that use these lanes the most. And there is still plenty of space in those lanes, they probably run less than 30% capacity by my observation. We are a town of single occupant vehicles, for sure. In this town, few live where they work, before and after the turn of the economy over the past 10 years.</p>

<p>I think regardless of what city/region/state people live it, if people are not going to work where they live/live where they work, for whatever set of reasons, there is no good solution. Non-motorized transportation simply is not an answer here that people can/will use (with our seasonal weather changes), not enough to make a real difference, so we need powered machinery of one kind or another. Their job has them in one end of town, their kids have to be in some preferred school district on the other end of town, so commuting congestion becomes part of normal life for everyone. For full disclosure, my wife is 5 miles from work and uses 2 buses to get to/from work everyday, a 30-40 minute trip. I am 10 miles from work, luckily I drive "against the grain" each way so my commute (half freeway, half streets) averages 17 minutes. The bus system does not support my use for commuting, I have to drive. We are not the norm.</p>

<p>Back to the photo- YES! I was certainly surprised to find the setting sun sneaking through those two stacks on the power plant, a very nice feature.</p>

<p>*you know, Star Trek...</p>

<p>Taken from a moving vehicle on the Brasov-Ploesti road in Romania. The light was spectacular.</p><div></div>